Content marketing has moved from a buzzword to an industry standard in the last two years. According to Content.ly, 57 percent of organizations now have two or more people dedicated to content marketing, and 24 percent of organizations now devote 50 percent of more of their budget to content. In today’s episode of The Digital Download, we dive into content marketing and discuss the things you should and should not be doing when it comes to creating meaningful content for your brand.Read More

Facebook is continuing to grow rapidly, with changes to not only the site’s format and links, but also updates in video development, consumer control and social networking. Don’t fall behind and get lost in conversation: Here are the latest Facebook updates that you must know.

Content marketing has moved from a buzzword to an industry standard in the last two years. According to Content.ly, 57 percent of organizations now have two or more people dedicated to content marketing, and 24 percent of organizations now devote 50 percent of more of their budget to content.

And while more and more brands are doing it, they’re not necessarily doing it effectively. Neil Patel sums it up best in his recent Content Marketing Institute article, “5 obvious content marketing strategies most companies overlook,” pointing out that strategy easily takes a step back when put up against the daily pressures of deadlines, turnover, crises and life. Here are some of Patel’s top five obvious content marketing features that oftentimes go ignored:

A fight is brewing in the world of marketing when it comes to brand budget dollars; how do you choose between native advertising and content marketing? It’s not an easy question to answer, brands must wade through a plethora of information to decide what’s best for them. To help cut through the clutter and achieve the best results while still running lean and mean, we’ve put together an infographic to explain the pros and cons of each side.

The utilization of content marketing has exploded over the past few years. Case in point, the explosion of searches for “content marketing” according to Google Trends:

Content marketing Google Trends graph

While the concept isn’t new, the sheer amount of noise on the internet has changed every brand’s approach to getting their message heard by the right people (at the right time). Spending resources on creating stellar pieces of content that are more about the end reader and less about a brand is working well for everyone from Coke to IBM.

But what about brands that don’t have the resources of Fortune 500 companies? How do they ensure that they not only create great content, but that that content gets in front of the right audience? More and more, PR pros are stepping in to help, wearing the hats of both content creators and distributors for their clients.

Summertime and the livin’s… successful! In fact, some are downright brag-worthy. Grab your swimsuit and a pair of goggles before reading on – these client success highlights are making a splash that can’t be avoided.

Your favorite social media sites got a makeover. What’s new? Facebook and Snapchat updated their user’s feeds and Instagram is playing catch-up.

Social media changes are par for the course in the digital land, but these recent changes seem to highlight the race for which platform can dominate consumer screen time. Here’s the 4-1-1 on the recent social media changes and how you can use them to your marketing advantage.

Content marketing has moved from a buzzword to an industry standard in the last two years. With everyone from major brands to startups scrambling to create content that draws in customers, the content marketing game is increasingly more difficult to play.

A content strategy based on compelling written and visual assets that consumers actually want to read and find value in is no small feat. Everyone is an expert in something, and with all these experts, how can brands rise above the noise with their content?

To get you started, we’ve created a glossary of terms, a content-tionary if you will, of the most important phrases in content marketing. Use these when you’re creating your strategy or vetting a new agency. And if you’re doing the latter, make sure to reach out to our president, Lindsey Groepper, to talk about BLAST’s content marketing services.

Have FOMO (fear of missing out)? Hate awkwardly laughing at a joke you missed from last night’s news? No one wants to be the last to know, and social platforms are taking notice of the recent spike in demand for real-time content. Here are the latest social media updates you need to know, all focused on keeping you up to date, in the know and chock-full of real-time info:

Thanks to platforms like Facebook – and more recently Twitter – autoplay videos are further creating a digital space that is all the more crowded than ever – so how do you, as a video marketer, make your content stand out from the rest? In today’s episode of The Digital Download, our team takes a closer look at autoplay videos and discusses its impact on the digital landscape.